EarthLED CL-5 LED Light Bulb Reviews

I was really impressed at both the amount and quality of light this little guy put off into my office. It springs to life instantly (unlike CFLs) and (I tested it myself) simply sips power. It's at least 90% more efficient than incandescent light bulbs. Luckily for me, I got the bulb for free from EarthLED as a sample so I could better write about the bulb, but I'm looking to outfit all the non-dimmable lights in my house with EarthLED CL-5s.

I was so pleased with the performance of the CL-3 I purchased.
I figured I would purchase a couple CL-5's. I ordered both the cool white and the warm white, the warm white is my favorite, it produces a more natural light. I would compare it to a 60 watt bulb.
The Cool white is fine for general lighting, but it's a little spooky, I would not recommend cool whites for reading.

I had received notice from my electric company that they were increasing rates by 5%.
That would add an additional $5 dollars to my monthly bill. I'm not cool with that at all.
So I took the $60 dollars a year I would have spent on the higher electricity costs and decided to invest in bulbs. Switching from 15 watt CFL bulbs to Earthled 5 watt bulbs decreases my operating costs for lighting by 66 percent. When Earthled compared the savings of ownership, they never thought to mention rising electric prices into the equation. Anybody considering these bulbs, don't hesitate to try the warm white models. Buy them now!

I bought one lamp to evaluate for my home. This lamp is bright, but only illuminates in a directional beam pattern. If placed in a table lamp, half the lamp shade is lit, lighting up the ceiling but leaving the table and the bottom half of the lamp shade dark. The only application this would work in is a down light. The heat sink is bulky and the lamp is over-sized for an A19. If they can make the beam pattern similar to an incandescent, it would work in more applications.

Two of these bulbs in my ceiling fixture sufficiently light my small bedroom.  10 Watts to light my room!  Although they are not truly omnidirectional, the globe design adequately permits light dispersal. 

The light output for this design is amazing!  It's also whisper quiet.

I own both the CL-3 and CL-5 bulbs.  I have found that the CL-5 is, as expected, much brighter than the CL-3 - thus much more able to fill needs around your home for lighting.  We are using them in our kids desk lamps they use for hours of study.  Previously they had CFLs (originally incandescents) and we did not like the idea of the kids perhaps being clumsy or careless and breaking such a bulb right on their workspace.  LEDs excell in the more directed task lighting roll.

 

The CL-5 has a nice bright, warm light. (There is also a cool white available).  Plenty bright for a desk.  Light is easy on the eyes, not harsh at all.  It is not as bright, in our opinion, as a 60 watt incandescent - but nearly so... and at only 5 watts!!!   Bulb is rated at around a 50,000 hour lifetime... at our usage, that will definately be around 12 years or more.  Definately recommend this bulb.

 

<Update 10/09/2008>:  I have recently installed two CL-5s as my garage workbench lighting.  Ultimately I want my workbench to be only solar powered, so these bulbs being only 10 total combined watts are ideal.